Insanity Equals Genius

            How do you draw the line between insanity and genius? In a way the two coincide really well. There have been many famous artists who’ve driven themselves insane, but their works of art were amazing to the general public. Van Gogh spent his last moments creating a masterpiece as he continued to lose his mind. He finished his painting right up to the moment before he took his own life. He obviously was a prodigy when it came to art and being able to portray himself on paper, but where does genius cross over into insanity?

            In Salman Rushdie’s “The Harmony of the Spheres” we see the balance between insanity and intelligence. The story begins talking about Eliot Crane who has killed himself. Lucy, who was his wife, watched him suffer for over two years before he managed to pull the trigger on himself. She knew that “he had been ill for more than two years, and all she could think was It’s over.”(Rushdie, 125). After that the story goes back to talk about Eliot’s and her life and we see the possibility of intelligence through insanity or vice versa. So Rushdie’s ultimate question within this story is: How do we lose our minds?

            Crane’s idea is that it’s “a simple biochemical imbalance.”(Rushdie, 134). He understands it as the brains activity shifts from the right hemisphere to the left and a person loses their mind when the hemispheres are out of whack. The only way to remain sane is by holding on to that balance/harmony between the hemispheres.

            Before Crane shot himself he was thinking of terribly vivid images which took over his thought pattern. He lists many of things that occupied his brain like songs from angels, hymns, mantras, chants, philosophers arguing, and demonic wizards hurling things. All of that and more and there were just too many things to have in one man’s head.

            There have been many people who have been considered to be a genius at something, Van Gogh and his paintings, Ernest Hemingway and his writings. Both of whom eventually killed themselves and I believe it’s because there was so much acitivity in their brains to control. Rushdie shows us that being genius can drive someone crazy, because there is so much going on at once. Someone may have the most brilliant and outrageous thoughts, which may lead to disharmony between the spheres. That is why each of the people mentioned found a way to express their thoughts, but without an outlet there’s no escape from your own mind.